GM/Biotech Crops Monthly Report August 2018

Storing data in DNA

A team in America is using DNA as a storage medium for computer files because they claim that all the data currently stored on the Internet would fit in a shoebox. It seems that nature knows best!MorePic: Andy Eick

EU classes Gene-editing as GM

The European Court of Justice has ruled that altering living things using the relatively new technique of genome editing counts as genetic engineering. This has huge implications for the roll out of new varietiesMorePic: Biosciences for Farming

Monsanto is now part of Bayer

Bayer has bought Monsanto for 128 million dollars but Bayer must divest its Liberty Link and InVigor business, probably to BASF before the two management teams can act as one unitMorePic: Andre-Pierre du Plessis

Something fishy going on?

Farm-reared salmon do not have the pink colouration of wild salmon unless dye is added to their feed. Now they can be fed with GM tomatoes that have been engineered to have enhanced levels of ketocarotenoids to achieve the same effectMorePic: Grant Slater

Unexpected benefit of GM maize

NK306BtGT is a variety of maize that is resistant to some insects and tolerant of application of glyphosate but farmers on the uplands of Bukidnon are reporting that it is also resistant to Diploidia ear rot. This is not some unexpected genetic mutation but simply that the reduction in tissue damage due to the control of insects is making colonisation of the era by the fungus much more difficult.MorePic: UGE CAES

On/Off switch for CRISPrCas9

Researchers at Bath and Cardiff universities have developed a method of switching protein expression on and off using an amino acid similar to lysine.MorePic: Gareth Hall

A new type of photosynthesis

Plant-derived proteins can be subtly different from mammalian proteins but now a team at Aachen University in Germany have engineered tobacco to produce engineered antibodies that are equally as effective as mammalian-derived molecules.MorePic: UGA CAES

THE LATEST ADDITIONS TO THE GM/BIOTECH DATABASE ARE:

New stacked event – Bt11 x MIR162 x MON89034 – maize with Lepidopteran insect resistance and tolerance of glufosinate approved for food, feed and environmental use in Argentina and Brazil and for food and feed use in South Korea.